I listen to Baroque and Classical music every day. I can't read musical notation and I play guitar by ear with only the most rudimentary understanding of theory. But I've been hooked on classical music since seeing Warner Brothers cartoons (e.g. Bugs Bunny) when I was a kid.

Today I heard (on my local classical music radio station) a recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, with Pinchas Zukerman conducting and playing violin. Wow. It was a bit slower and more stately than whatever CD version I have in my collection. Really terrific version. So here's my takeaway from this and other recordings I've heard.

Classical music exists in standard musical notation - the great masters are dead and gone. The contemporary conductors and players interpret the work of the masters - with varying results. A familiar piece can become fresh when one hears a new and different recording. The recordings don't vary substantially, of course, but balance, cadence and feel are always different. So this is a layman's appreciation of incredibly skilled and talented musicians.

I also listen to a fair amount of Ray Wylie Hubbard, so take all this with a grain of salt.

Without actual recordings of the masters performance, interpretation is at best a considerable modern replay. Covering any song at all, can be done at the discretion of the musician. Other than that, it's a crap shoot.

_________________GSMUSIC: Hey RZ, Im not no upper class american, the gear I own is what I have special to me. My car sucks, my house sucks, my nieghborhood sucks. Does yours RZ? Does it?

Pinchas Zukerman is an interesting musician. I think I will look up the vinyl I had of him. I recently resurrected an turntable, so this will be a project. It is funny to hear that turntable sound as the stylus set down ... and then the snap crackles. the music starts and all is good.

I use Pandora too. But my Ludwig van channel keeps pulling up LOTR orchestral soundscores - this ain't classical music, heh. But I like Pandora and a couple of weeks ago discovered Cherubini, who I'd never heard of, through the random mix on one of my classical Pandora stations.

Six months ago I didn't know squat about Mendelssohn; now I listen to my recently purchased M-CDs in the car several times a week. Can't believe ol' Felix, especially the string symphonies he composed whilst just a Jungteen.

Cheers, Randy

P.S. - I could not find a CD for sale of Pinchas Zukerman's Four Seasons, so ordered the late 80s Deutschgramophone CD of Zukerman, Perlman, and two more Wunderkinden playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It's all good . . . must go drink more red wine now. R

I also sometimes dial in some classical radio on the drive in to work. The morning announcer on http://wrti.org/ is quite informative and I've learned a lot about the genre. The age of the composers of some of these works is sick!

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